Sorrows are gardeners: they plant flowers along waste places, and teach vines to cover barren heaps.

A grindstone that had not grit in it, how long would it take to sharpen an ax? And affairs that had not grit in them, how long would they take to make a man?

You never know till you try to reach them how accessible men are; but you must approach each man by the right door.

Providence is but another name for natural law. Natural law itself would go out in a minute if it were not for the divine thought that is behind it.

We let our blessings get mouldy, and then call them curses.

When God thought of mother, He must have laughed with satisfaction, and framed it quickly - so rich, so deep, so divine, so full of soul, power, and beauty, was the conception.

The soul without imagination is what an observatory would be without a telescope.